I seem to remember the school getting rid of Monty a few years back (caving to pressure from a Mexican Students Against Sideline Shenanigans type group). If I recall correctly a group of fans decided to just pay the guy to keep dressing up and bought him a ticket to every game.

Not sure if that policy has changed, but this guy appears to be dressed differently and seems to have field access, so maybe they were allowed to bring him back so long as they tweaked the image somewhat.

Which isn't to say the NCAA isn't ridiculous about things like the North Dakota mascot situation.

I played golf the other day with a guy from Chicago who had an old Miami (Not that Miami) Redskins headcover. He had headcovers from the schools of each of his kids, and the oldest one had graduated form Miami pre-Redhawks.

So we got takling about the schools who had abandoned their Native American names and mascots, and the more we talked, the more we figured that there may be more schools that successfully resisted changes, than those who did change. Anyway, there are noteworthy examples on both sides of the divide:

Tribal council approval. The NCAA is ok with Indian nicknames/mascots as long as schools get approval from the relevant nearby tribal councils.Central Michigan and the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Council have a proclamation approving the name, along with some joint educational and scholarship efforts. Same thing for the Seminole Nation.

Both of those suppositions (about Eastern and tribal gaming) might well be true. I know the tribal council that has approved UND's use of "Fighting Sioux" has asked for the liscensing rights to the mascot in return for their support. (The other Sioux council nearby hasn't, in part because the two councils don't frequently get along.)

All this is fine by me. They're leveraging the imagined connection of sports fans to their tribes for the greater good of the communities they represent. The key point for me is that the tribes themselves possess some degree of control about how their names are used.

Should add that the tricky thing with Eastern is that most Huron (Wyandot) peoples were forced to Oklahoma and Kansas in the 1820s and 1830s, so there's not the same kind of relevant local political entity to deal with. I'm not sure how the NCAA deals with tribes that were exiled.

Chippewas survived as the university and Tribe have an agreement in place where they said they dont really care if the use their name as long as its used in a non offensive way blah blah PC crap aka they will kick you out of the game if you even attempt to wear anything native related.

I would assume they showed that piece of paper to the NCAA hence being able to keep their name.

UND is changing their name. The NCAA required they get approval from the 2 Sioux tribal groups closest to the university (there are 6 or 7 sioux nations/reservations, each with their own tribal council). They got approval from the Spirit Lake Tribal Council but not Standing Rock.

They finally made the move to change after this past school year. This years frozen four is probably the last time they will be called the fighting souix in an ncaa event. And as usual our student hockey group was not nice to them in this regard at st. Paul.

SDSU did cave to student pressure but concerned alumni stepped up and bought Monty a ticket to the games so his momentum changing presence could be felt. Even though at the cavernous Qualcomm about 45% of the fans are never in their seat and just wander around, it was brought to security's attention that Monty was always out of his paid-for seat, moving to and fro, entertaining the masses. Obviously this had to stop so Monty was told to stay in his seat. Again, concerned alumni stepped up and bought Monty multiple tickets in different areas of the stadium, giving him the right to wander.

That was old Monty. They've since tamed his costume and muscles and now he is allowed on the sidelines. New Monty is much shorter and is not smeared in olive oil.

You are right; the old Aztec was truly freakish. Like a South American "Hulk." They slathered him in what looked like a combination of bodybuilding oil and suntan-in-a-bottle. That's what I remember from the game at Camp Randall. And the headdress was a lot wilder; much more in the way of spikes and feathers and other freaky stuff. Have there been changes post-2006?

I think there's a difference between a mascot that features an ancient civilization and one that potentially features your neighbor (unless the neighbor's cool with that, which the Seminole Nation is but the Standing Rock Sioux Nation isn't). YMMV.

I agree with you and I tend to err on the side of being sensitive of others, if possible. However, I never got the big deal about mascots (as long as they are done tastefully).

Consider Florida State: The Seminole tribe was (and is) a big part of Florida history. However, most people would not know anything about Seminoles were it not for the fact that FSU features them so prominently. In other words, FSU has propped up the tribal name and continued it into the present day, thereby benefitting the tribe.

On the other hand, in SDSU's case, the Aztecs were part of an amazing civilization. They dominated Central America for centuries and everyone learns about them in middle-school history classes. And now their good name is being used by SDSU? Not that anyone really cares, but SDSU is arguably bringing down the tribe. If there was ever a case for de-naming a school, this has got to be one of them . . . (Of course, as mentioned above, there is no existing Aztec tribe to object, making this a mere academic discussion)

In my effort to make a joke I stumbled upon something truly scary. I wanted to make a joke about SDSU playing a team with a Conquistador mascot, which there actually is, and having the mascots fight on the sideline. That would be really offensive.

In the process, I came across this site that sells mascot costumes. Some of them are pretty horrible. Hopefully DB does not ever venture there. Something about this picture was too funny. If we do get a mascot, please no, make sure they come dressed to the stadium so no little kids witness this

In reality it's a beverage provided by the department of health, it's free and its just an envelope that you're supposed to mix with water, I know bc i live in Mexico (although this seems to be from Nicaragua)

The Aztecs were into that. In fact, they once slaughtered 40,000 people in a three day saturnalia of sacrifice. This love of mass murder so embittered their neighbors(The Aztecs raided rival tribes for victims) that they became allies of Cortez when he arrived. Their participation in Cortez' conquest was a significant factor in its success.

They weren't very bright either, a lot of modern archaeologists believe the human sacrifices were the result of mistakenly literally interpreting older Olmec allegories about the heartl(soul) being cut out of the body at death and the burning(renewal) of the soul at death.

It's a mascot carrying bag. I think the mascot is a penguin but not sure. I was just imagining a little kid crying if they saw it being carried into the stadium. I remember seeing my kindergarten teacher blowing up one of the Letter People before class and I've been scarred ever since. Now I've said too much.